Aerial robotic vehicles may be used for a variety of surveillance, reconnaissance, and exploration tasks for military and civilian applications. Such robotic vehicles may carry a payload configured to perform a variety of different activities desired by operators, such as capturing aerial images/video, participating in remote control racing, etc. Robotic vehicles, such as aerial vehicles, have are becoming increasingly popular for civilian use, and represent an increasing market for developing non-military uses and applications for personal devices. For example, such robotic vehicles may carry a payload configured to perform a specific function desired by a user, such as deliver a package, capture aerial images or video, first person view racing, etc.
Autonomous flight modes have been developed in which the robotic vehicle may complete a mission without requiring a manual input or guidance from a user. To enable such capabilities, computer vision techniques have been integrated into the control systems of the robotic vehicles to enhance their navigation and guidance capabilities (e.g., vision based position and altitude control, visual inertial odometry, target tracking, etc.). To accomplish these techniques and ensure safe autonomous flight, the robotic vehicle may be configured to use data collected from various sensors, including at least one on-board camera. When an on-board camera is not operating properly, performance may be negatively impacted. In particular, even a small occlusion or defect on a camera lens or sensor can cause certain computer vision algorithms to fail, causing the robotic vehicle to become unstable and potentially crash.